Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants

The overwhelming majority of criminal convictions occurs by the entry of a guilty or no contest plea.  The law has established certain well-defined standards to be applied in determining the validity of a conviction which resulted from a guilty or no contest plea.  Basically, any guilty or no contest plea must be made voluntarily and intelligently, with a knowledge of the fundamental constitutional rights involved and the direct penal consequences of the guilty plea, and the defendant’s expressed desire to waive his or her constitutional rights.[278]

            The law is clear that a defendant’s guilty plea is unconstitutional as involuntary and unintelligent where the defendant did not express an intelligent waiver of his or her fundamental constitutional rights unless the record demonstrates in the totality of the circumstances that the defendant was nevertheless aware of those rights.[279]

[278] Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 (1969); In re Tahl, 1 Cal.3d 122 (1969); People v. Howard, 1 Cal.4th 1132, 1174-1180 (1992).

[279] Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242-244 (1969); In re Tahl, 1 Cal.3d 122, 132 (1960); People v. Howard, 1 Cal.4th 1132, 1174-1180 (1992).